Celebrate Good Lives
by Bradley Shaw
What the Living Can Learn from the Departed Hosted by two funeral directors who spend more time in chapels than most people spend in cafes, Celebrate Good Lives is a podcast about life, seen through the lens of death. After years of helping families say goodbye, we’ve realized something: the people who’ve passed on still have a lot to teach us. From meaningful last words to the hilarious (and sometimes awkward) moments at funerals, we’ve collected stories, lessons, and reminders about what really matters - love, connection, laughter, and leaving things a little better than you found them. Each episode, we share what we’ve learned from the back of the chapel — the quiet insights, the big emotions, and yes, the occasional funeral mishap. We’ll also talk with guests who work in grief, caregiving, legacy, and life — people who help us all understand how to live fully, love deeply, and not take ourselves too seriously. This isn’t a podcast about de
Episodes
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Ep 36: Its an EPIDEMIC!
Send us Fan Mail Today the boys discuss a very topic in the funeral service sector... Where has embalming gone? Dean has been away, AGAIN! Direct Cremations are a thing of the past? maybe... join the guys to get the scoop!
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Ep 35: 30 Years of Funeral Service - What's Changed?
Send us Fan Mail Today is special, i interviewed Dean Weber on 30 years of funeral service. We covered all aspects of his time, his study, the changes and what he is grateful for.
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Ep 34: Are funerals expensive?
Send us Fan Mail Welcome to 2025, today we discuss the curly one, are funerals expensive? We share our experiences and some justification on the matter. Thanks for joining us!
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Ep 33: Death Positivity
Send us Fan Mail Today we chat about death positivity, the language we use to help be more positive about the death journey, the personalization of a funeral and starting the grief journey well.
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Ep 32: Halloween 2024
Send us Fan Mail All tings Halloween, funeral ghosts, dreams, nightmares and the word FUNERAL.
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Ep 31: Marketing - How do you market a funeral home?
Send us Fan Mail Today with special guest Cherie Stevenson from Stellar Creative Marketing we dive into the dynamics of how to market a funeral home, where to start, what things work and what doesn't.
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Ep 30: Digital Legacy
Send us Fan Mail Do you know what happens to your Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn when you die? Neither did we! So today we share what we learnt and how you can plan for this.
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Ep 29: Funeral Costs - What does a funeral actually cost?
Send us Fan Mail Today we dive into the sticky one, funeral costs! ewwww.. always a difficult one, but one that needs to be addressed. Lets dive in!
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Ep 28: DIY - Do's and Dont's
Send us Fan Mail The Do's and Dont's of DIY, controversial? Yes. We chat through what we see as value, what DIY can do for you and what to avoid when DIYing!
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Ep 27: End of Life Care Practitioner Michael Harrington
Send us Fan Mail Today we are joined by End of Life Practitioner Michael Harrington who has been working in this space for almost 20 years. He shares some insights to his learnings that he has shared in his book Conscious Transition: A Journey into the Heart of Death & Dying. Michael has some…
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Ep 26: Personal Grief Journey - Ali from Align and Nourish
Send us Fan Mail We sit down with Ali from Align and Nourish to chat about her own personal grief journey. Ali was very open, vulnerable and has been diligent in her healing process. She had some great learnings and takeaways to consider when losing a loved one.
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Ep 25: Memorable Moments
Send us Fan Mail This episode looks into the memorable moments of our careers, the funerals that have stuck in our minds, the things that make you smile, the moments that glisten and most of all the achievements of creating a memorable farewell!
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Ep 24: International Views Pt 3
Send us Fan Mail The last of the catch up with Craig, Ben and Jordan on their overseas trip.
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Ep 23: International Views - with Craig Caldwell, Ben Whitworth and Jordan Goss PT2
Send us Fan Mail Today Dean sits down with international embalmers Craig Caldwell (US) Ben Whitworth (UK) and Jordan Goss (NZEA) to discuss embalming and international funeral trends.
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Ep 22: International Views - with Craig Caldwell, Ben Whitworth and Jordan Goss PT1
Send us Fan Mail Today Dean sits down with international embalmers Craig Caldwell (US) Ben Whitworth (UK) and Jordan Goss (NZEA) to discuss embalming and international funeral trends.
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Ep 21: Lets Catch Up
Send us Fan Mail Woaaaaaaah, been a busy few weeks with guests, lets draw back the curtain and catch up.
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Ep 20: with Glenys Talivai from Public Trust
Send us Fan Mail Today we catch up with Glenys Talivai who is the CEO of Public Trust New Zealand. We yarn today about wills, estates and everything we need to prepare for after death to administer an estate. A super interesting podcast with some wicked takeaways!
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Ep 19: Embalming Pt 3 - With Jordan Goss
Send us Fan Mail Our third and last part of the series with Jordan Goss from the New Zealand Embalmers Association. A massive thank you to Jordan for his time and sharing of knowledge around embalming being the "gold standard" in funeral care.
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Ep 18: Embalming Pt 2 - With Special Guest Jordan Goss
Send us Fan Mail The second part of our embalming series with special guest Jordan Goss - President of New Zealand Embalmers Association.
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Ep 17: Embalming Pt 1 - Special Guest Jordan Goss
Send us Fan Mail The first part of our embalming series with special guest Jordan Goss - President of New Zealand Embalmers Association. We discuss the pre embalming and starting of embalming in this podcast. The first of a three part series.
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Ep 16: Things to know about the process
Send us Fan Mail News story of the week, the week in sport and our topic of the day being what do you need to know when it comes to someone who is about to die and how can you prepare.
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Ep 15: What's the hype around burials?
Send us Fan Mail News story of the week, followed by a yarn on burials, natural burials, burials at sea and our thoughts on everything burial related.
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Ep 14: Summer - Whats the Plan?
Send us Fan Mail Fun one today talking news story of the week, summer, sport and everything inbetween!
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Ep 13: Expected Vs Unexpected - What to expect?
Send us Fan Mail The boys today discuss what to expect when someone dies expectedly and unexpectedly. The coroner, the pathologist, the mortuary technician and everything in-between.
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Ep 12: The FUN in FUNeral
Send us Fan Mail We talk about how we think you can put the FUN in FUNeral. A fun way to really make those funerals that are bland and boring more interesting and what would we do to help?
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Ep 11: What to do with ashes?
Send us Fan Mail Today we chat about ashes, what you can do with them, how they come back to you, what you can buy for them and ways in which you can memorialize loved ones. There's even a little challenge in here! Cheers!
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Ep 10: 10 things to do before we die!
Send us Fan Mail We get personal on this one, 10 things we want to do before we die! Also our weekly news round-up story that caught our attention + some cool learnings here!
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Ep 9: Music - Whats your funeral song?
Send us Fan Mail We have the film crew in today and we discuss music, what songs are common, what songs are popular now, what was popular back in the 90's and 2000's. Listen in, a few good laughs!
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Ep 8: NZ VS USA VS AUS - How is the industry different?
Send us Fan Mail We have special guest Hayley Waugh on the podcast today sharing her knowledge of the funeral industry in Australia along with Brad and Dean. We talk cremations, burials, coroners and everything in between!
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EP 7: I Don't Want a Funeral
Send us Fan Mail The rise of I don't want a funeral is taking over the funeral industry, so we discuss the value of a funeral and what you can do to take a funeral from no fuss to beautiful without changing the wishes of a person!
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EP 6: A Day In The Life
Send us Fan Mail We get into a personal description of what a day in the life of Brad & Dean looks like here in Whakatane, New Zealand.
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EP 5: Education: How do i get into the funeral industry?
Send us Fan Mail We get into what you need to know about education and how to land a job in a funeral home both in the USA and NZ.
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Ep 4: Hearses, Cars and what else?
Send us Fan Mail We get right into the conversation of hearses (not hursts), funeral vehicles, not funeral vehicles and what is the future of funeral vehicles?
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Creativity - How to create the perfect event.
Send us Fan Mail This podcast dives into how to create the perfect commemoration event for your loved one, our experiences with creating these and what you should do.
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Ep 2: Rites and Rituals
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to Ep 2, where we dive into the different rites and rituals of different cultures and religious groups when it comes to how they grieve and what they do when it comes to their celebration of a life.
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Ep 1: Introduction to Us
Send us Fan Mail We talk about our backgrounds in funeral service and a bit about what you can expect from the only funeral podcast coming out of NZ. Lock it in!
About this show
What the Living Can Learn from the Departed
Hosted by two funeral directors who spend more time in chapels than most people spend in cafes, Celebrate Good Lives is a podcast about life, seen through the lens of death.
After years of helping families say goodbye, we’ve realized something: the people who’ve passed on still have a lot to teach us. From meaningful last words to the hilarious (and sometimes awkward) moments at funerals, we’ve collected stories, lessons, and reminders about what really matters - love, connection, laughter, and leaving things a little better than you found them.
Each episode, we share what we’ve learned from the back of the chapel — the quiet insights, the big emotions, and yes, the occasional funeral mishap. We’ll also talk with guests who work in grief, caregiving, legacy, and life — people who help us all understand how to live fully, love deeply, and not take ourselves too seriously.
This isn’t a podcast about de
Hosted by
Bradley Shaw